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PlayStation
The PlayStation (プレイステーション Pureisutēshon) is a video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment initially in Japan on December 3, 1994.http://www.next-gen.biz/features/making-playstation The system hit stores in other regions during the autumn of 1995. The PlayStation sold a total of 102 units throughout its 9 years on the market.http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps_e.html While Sony stopped production of the console in 2004, the games of the system still went for sale throughout the next two years until Sony ceased production on March 23, 2006.http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146549.html History The PlayStation's development began in 1986 with Nintendo's early disc-based technology. The original Famicom Disk System had several memory issues due to their rewritable nature. Upon the release of CD-ROM XA, both Nintendo and Sony became interested and began working together on a project regarding the "SNES-CD." The "PlayStation" name was first announced in May 1991 for the Consumer Electronics Show, but Nintendo's president Hiroshi Yamauchi noticed a small loophole in the initial contract. Sony's contract with Nintendo would give Sony the rights to all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Finding this deal to be unacceptable, Yamauchi declared at the Consumer Electronics Show of 1991 that the partnership between Nintendo and Sony would be terminated. Nintendo signed with Phillps thanks to the efforts of Nintendo's chairman Minoru Arakawa. Nintendo closed the project with Sony permanently, leaving all of the work the two had done together with Sony. However, using the remnants of the project, Sony was able to take back the initial "PlayStation" name due to a U.S. federal court case during 1991. After 3 years of production without Nintendo, the PlayStation reached its first launch in December 3, 1994. The system was priced at $299 USD. Technical specifications * LSI LR333x0-based Core ** MIPS R3000A-compatible 32-bit RISC chip running at 33.8688 MHz ** The chip is manufactured by LSI Logic Corp. with technology licensed from SGI. ** Features: *** Operating performance of 30 MIPS *** Bus bandwidth 132 MB/s *** 4 kB Instruction Cache *** 1 kB non-associative SRAM Data Cache *** 2 MB of main RAM * Geometry transformation engine ** Resides inside the main CPU chip, giving it additional vector math instructions used for 3D graphics ** Features: *** Operating performance of 66 MIPS *** 360,000 polygons per second * MDEC ** Also residing within the main CPU, it is responsible for decompressing images and video. ** Documented device mode is to read three RLE-encoded 16×16 macroblocks, run IDCT and assemble a single 16×16 RGB macroblock. ** Output data may be transferred directly to GPU via DMA. ** It is possible to overwrite IDCT matrix and some additional parameters, however MDEC internal instruction set was never documented. ** Features: *** Compatible with MJPEG and H.261 files *** Operating Performance of 80 MIPS *** Directly connected to CPU Bus * AV Multi Out * RCA Composite video and Stereo out (SCPH-100x to 3xxx only) * RFU DC Out (SCPH-100x to 3xxx only) * S-Video Out (SCPH-1000 only) * Serial I/O (used for PlayStation Link Cable, not on PSone) * Parallel I/O (no official use, SCPH-100x to 750x only) *'GPU' ** Handles 2D graphics processing separate from the main 3D engine on the CPU ** Features: *** Maximum of 16.7 million colors (24-bit color depth) *** Resolutions from 256 × 224 to 640 × 480 *** Adjustable frame buffer *** Unlimited color lookup tables *** Emulation of simultaneous backgrounds (for parallax scrolling) *** Flat or Gouraud shading and texture mapping *** 1 MB of VRAM * CD-ROM drive ** 2x, with a maximum data throughput of 300 kB/s ** XA Mode 2 Compliant ** CD-DA (CD-Digital Audio) ** 32 kB buffer * Bios * Stored on 512 kB ROM * SPU ** Supports ADPCM sources with up to 24 channels ** Sampling rate of up to 44.1 kHz ** 512 kB of memory Variants PSone In 2000, Sony released a new slimmer redesigned PlayStation console.http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/12/06/sony_ps_one_sales_rocket/ The PSone was deseigned with more rounded edges as well as featured a slightly smaller height. The PSone used a new Graphical User Interface and featured several new port location changes. References Category:Consoles developed by Sony Category:Consoles released in 1995 Category:Home consoles